You’re not headless. You’re hybrid — and that’s the CMS 12 default.

For CMS 12 / Commerce teams with a React (or similar) storefront who keep hearing “just go headless” or “just move to Graph.” This is Part 1 of Find → Graph: the hybrid storefront.

Optimizely CMS 12 sites that look “headless” in the browser are usually hybrid.

Editors still work in the CMS. Catalog still lives in Commerce. Preview and on-page edit still need a server-rendered page. React (or similar) is a storefront shell, not the system of record.

If you skip that, CMS 13 + Optimizely Graph feels like a frontend rewrite. It isn’t. Graph replaces Search & Navigation (Find) as the query/index layer.

It does not replace:

• Content types and IContentRepository
• Commerce catalog, pricing, and cart
• Edit mode and preview
• Your React / SSR host

Three layers people mix up

Content Delivery API is content over HTTP. Find/Graph is query, facet, rank, and index. Using CDA as your product-listing search is how teams paint themselves into a corner.

A hybrid shape that survives Graph

1. CMS/Commerce owns content and catalog.
2. A thin .NET host does auth, cart, preview, and first paint (SSR).
3. React hydrates listing / PDP / checkout islands.
4. Listings talk to a query module (IProductSearch, IPageSearch) — not IClient in 40 controllers.

That last point is the migration. Find behind a port → Graph is an adapter. Find in every controller → Graph is a rewrite.

public interface IProductSearch
{
    Task<ProductSearchResult> SearchAsync(
        ProductSearchRequest request,
        CancellationToken cancellationToken);
}

// CMS 12: Find adapter implements this.
// CMS 13: Graph adapter implements this.
// Controllers and React never take a dependency on IClient.

Do this before

• Draw the line: CDA vs Find vs IContentLoader.
• Put Find behind interfaces (search, facets, paging).
• Don’t let React own search URLs the server doesn’t know.
• Measure three numbers: time from publish until the listing shows the new item in Find; listing p95; percent of searches with zero hits.

This is Part 1 of Find → Graph: the hybrid storefront. Next: typed Find query builders, facets, and GetContentResultAsync — so a Graph adapter can sit beside them later.